Long lines, and optimism, as Texas early voters cast...

1of2HOUSTON, TX - OCTOBER 22: People wait in line to vote at a polling place on the first day of early voting on October 22, 2018 in Houston, Texas. Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Beto O'Rourke is running against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the midterm elections. (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images)Photo: Loren Elliott, Stringer / Getty Images

2of2HOUSTON, TX - OCTOBER 22: People wait in line to vote at a polling place on the first day of early voting on October 22, 2018 in Houston, Texas. Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Beto O'Rourke is running against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the midterm elections. (Photo by Loren Elliott/Getty Images)Photo: Loren Elliott, Stringer / Getty Images

AUSTIN — Voters lined up at polling places across Texas at dawn on Monday, the first day of early voting as an energized Democratic Party tries to take control of Congress, and as Republican voters respond to months of hype about a “blue wave.”

“This is one of the most important elections of our lifetimes," said Cody Pogue, who arrived at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday to make sure he'd be one of the first people to cast a ballot for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke.

A ten-minute drive away, hundreds of people gathered in chairs and beneath tents to await the arrival of President Donald Trump in Houston. He is rallying with Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, who’s seeking a second six-year term.

"I just got out of bed and ran down here," said Lisa Brewer, one of the first to stake out a place Sunday night across from the 18,000-seat arena. "I didn't know people would be here right after me."

The competitive U.S. Senate race is driving much of the excitement in Texas, where just a third of registered voters turned out for the last midterm election, in 2014. Democrats haven’t won statewide office in Texas since 1994.

Democrats and Republicans turned out in droves during the March primary. More than one million Democrats cast a ballot, the highest turnout in a midterm since 2002. Similarly, Republican voters cast 1.5 million ballots for governor, the most since at least 1970.

The Texas Secretary of State’s office won’t release the first-day early voting numbers until Tuesday afternoon.

Some voters in Bexar County faced delays and long lines Monday morning. At one polling location on the West Side of San Antonio at least 100 voters waited for more than an hour to cast a ballot and found poll workers were using just one laptop to verify voters’ registration.

By 11 a.m. Monday in the Democrat stronghold of Travis County, more than 9,400 people had already voted in person, according to Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Bruce Elfant. The county, which includes the city of Austin, also received some 10,700 ballots by mail.

Officials in Travis County are still processing a late surge in voter registration applications and aim to finish the remaining 6,000 applications by the end of Monday, Elfant said. Texas is one of about a dozen states that don’t offer online voter registration. Applications must be sent by mail before the deadline and it took several days for thousands to arrive to the Travis County office. Though not all voters appear on the rolls yet, those who have registered can still request a provisional ballot at the polls, Elfant said.

“Early voting is going smoothly and there have been no issues regarding provisional ballots as a result of the backlog in processing,” Elfant said in a written statement.